I focused my career on building businesses that live at the intersection of media, entertainment and new technologies. I was in the cable industry early on and founded companies that launched new platforms for cable advertising and marketing. After that - before "interactive" was a buzzword - I ran the interactive music channel Video Jukebox Network (The Box) and sold it to MTV. In the 2000s I built MediaNet, the first company to aggregate and distribute digital music and media on a mass scale. Most important, I was among the first to equip my road bike with electronic shifting. Now I am a Managing Director of DEV (Digital Entertainment Ventures) where our mission is to fuel the companies that transform media and entertainment. And I still hope that one day I will be recruited as a domestique for an American team in the Tour de France.

Foreign Startups And Tech Investors Are Looking For A Home In The U.S.

Last week Miami played host to eMerge Americas, a conference that brought together the South Florida and Latin America tech communities. Over 6,000 participants registered representing players from the tech scene in South Florida and around the U.S., along with companies and investors from Latin America. The nations of Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia were particularly well represented since they are leading markets for mobile and social spending and have more highly developed startup cultures. They were there to plug into Miami, the unofficial capital of Latin America. But more importantly, they were looking for a platform to launch their companies onto the world stage.

Investors came out in force as well. I talked to several people representing family offices in Brazil and they told me that the moneyed class in their country is operating on a clock. First there is the World Cup this summer and then the Summer Olympics in 2016. By the time the Olympics wind down they expect to have a significant portion of their wealth shifted to the U.S.. Historically this has meant purchasing real estate. The strong flow of capital from Latin America to Miami helped soak up the huge surplus in residential and business property and reverse the plunge in prices after the 2008 financial meltdown.

The Miami construction cranes are out in full force once again but savvy Latin American investors have taken a lesson from the past real estate boom and bust. They don’t want all their money parked in one asset class in a single city. The tech economy offers an exciting alternative and increasingly they are trying to figure out how to participate. According to Diane Sanchez, the CEO of Technology Foundation of the Americas, “Miami continues to be an attractive destination for tech startups and investment from Latin America. We are advocating for an investment model for companies that have a regional play where talent, capital and markets can be connected and that can also compete in the United States.”

Latin America entrepreneurs and investors aren’t alone in seeking exposure to the U.S. Earlier this year I traveled to South Korea to establish operations for my company there. Coincidentally, President Park gave a televised speech the morning after I arrived to discuss her priorities for the “creative economy” which at its core will encourage entrepreneurs to develop digital platforms that create innovative new businesses and generate jobs. The Korean entrepreneurs I talked to were obviously pleased by the support of their government but had aspirations to move beyond its borders. They were seeking an opportunity to tap into the U.S. startup ecosystem where they could reach a much larger market and build a true global brand.

In the last few years New York has increasingly become a destination for tech companies and investors outside of the U.S. On her recent visit to New York, Naree Lee, who runs the premier tech incubator in Seoul called D. Camp, told me that for natives of Seoul, New York feels much more familiar than a sprawling, decentralized region like Silicon Valley. It is urban, fast-paced and relatively easy to navigate. Those same attributes make New York feel familiar to Europeans as well but they also like its close proximity to their continent. This may help to explain the accelerated flow of European startups and tech investment into the city.

The U.S. has a highly evolved infrastructure for nurturing innovative new companies and positioning them for global expansion. There are mature investor networks, a large and relatively homogeneous consumer population with expendable income, and a proven ability to commercialize innovative IP. Increasingly tech hubs are springing up in key cities and regions around the world from Latin America to Asia. As they do, the U.S. is exerting an intense gravitational pull, attracting dynamic young companies and investment capital, and interconnecting them in ways that were unimaginable before the digital era.

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